Running, Raisin Bran, and Other Stuff :)

We had a wonderful LONG weekend and are enjoying a short work week before another fun weekend. This weekend was our gospel meeting at church. We heard a great series of lessons on "Courage" from Nathan Williams. He was a great speaker and made several points in a way I'd never thought about before. I've never really thought of myself as courageous (I'm definitely more of a timid/cautious person), so I've got a lot of work to do! It takes a lot of courage to admit your mistakes, stand up for what's right, and practice self-control. I'm going to try to do a better job with all of that in the future!

On Saturday before the potluck, Travis and I ran our longest run yet...8 MILES!! I really wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, but somehow I ran the whole way without stopping. My time was 1:13:46, so that's about 9:15/mile pace. Right on track for a 2 hour half-marathon, which is what I signed up for as my goal time. I'm definitely not blazing fast (and not nearly as fast as in high school), but all I care about is finishing, so it's ok. Travis is doing great too! He finished probably 6 or 7 minutes ahead of me on Saturday. We've still got a little over 2 months til the race, so I feel pretty confident that we'll be ready for it.

Sunday night after church, we had a few people from church over for pizza and games at our house. It was a lot of fun. We ordered pizza from Marco's, which is probably about tied with Papa Murphy's for our favorite pizza. Much better than Domino's or Papa John's! We also learned a couple of new games, so that was fun. So far, we're 2 for 2 on having people over once a month in 2012. I hate to make it a "checklist" type of thing, but if we don't plan on doing it about once a month, we'll get busy and forget or not make time for it.

Yesterday, Travis had the day off for President's Day, so we went to Lowe's and Home Depot for a few things for our various house projects. Our big project yesterday was patching some of the drain pipe in our flower beds that had holes in it. It really didn't take too long...we just had to cut out the bad sections and replace it with new sections of pipe and then re-bury it underground. It turned into a messy project though because we've had so much rain lately and the flower beds were pretty much full of red mud! Hopefully, in a few weeks we'll get around to lining the flower beds with stone, filling them with some soil conditioner and mulch, and planting shrubs and flowers! Right now, they are still completely empty. 

Speaking of house projects, remember that to-do list from a few weeks ago? Here's how we're doing!

1. Hang the rest of the blinds we bought (6 *now only 4* windows to go!)
2. Hang pictures in the study (we know where they're all going to go...we just haven't hung them yet)
3. Repaint the window seat in the study (it's pink right now...definitely doesn't match)...we've bought the paint...just gotta do the painting!
4. Organize the guest bedroom closet (which has turned into the "junk" closet unfortunately) (haven't started this one yet)
5. Hang curtains in the breakfast room, study, guest bedroom, and our bathroom
6. Replace ceiling fans and light fixtures throughout the house (most of them are brassy gold...yuck)
7. Plant new shrubs in our flower beds
8. Plant the dogwood tree that Baugay gave us (DONE!)

So, we're getting there! Other things that could be added to the list are installing the key pad for our garage door opener, replacing the cabinet handles in our kitchen, and painting/touching up the trim in most of the rooms.

We'll just do a little bit at a time! Most of you have probably figured out that we don't work very fast, but that's ok. It's not a race, I guess!

I'm working tomorrow and Thursday, and then on Friday we're heading to Trussville for Jenn's belated birthday celebration and Kayla's wedding. Should be another great weekend! I'm assuming we'll be leaving the kitties behind (since Felix just LOVES to travel), so who knows what we'll find when we get back Sunday afternoon. I bet they love having the house to themselves for a few days...they probably sleep on the couch and tables, and do everything they know they can't do while we're here! Haha :)

Last week, I caught them napping on our nicely folded laundry. It was a nice, warm place to sleep I guess :)

KISSES!

Aww :)

By the way, if you are wanting to make an easy dessert for a potluck, this one is always a winner...Chocolate Trifle! It all got eaten at the potluck before I even got a bite. Oh well...I've made it and eaten it plenty of times before :)

Yum....I love chocolate!! :)

Oh, and one more thing: Can't end this without mentioning my awesome trip to Publix on Saturday night. I bought 10 boxes of Raisin Bran (one of my favorite cereals). They were various sizes and flavors, and they were all 50% off. After coupons, my total was $10.64. Best part is...I'm sending in the 10 UPCs for a $10 rebate!! Can't beat 10 boxes of cereal for 64 cents :) I love Publix and couponing!! As of next month, I've been couponing for 3 years now. It's definitely the way to shop :) We are able to buy way more stuff (and better quality) at Publix with coupons than at Wal-Mart, where I used to shop. Now, I try my best NOT to go to Wal-Mart. You don't save money there, in my opinion! Ok, I'll end my soapbox :)

Hope you're having a great day!

Lessons Learned (and Re-Learned)

Here are some random things I've learned in the past week:

Lesson #1: NEVER give your phone number to a realtor at an open house, especially when you aren't seriously looking to buy in the next month or two. I made the mistake of giving my number to one who said "I promise not to bug you. I know how that feels, and I hate being harrassed." Ok, so what do 4 emails and 3 phone calls in the past 2 days equal? HARRASSMENT! Oh well, I'll know better for next time :)

Lesson #2: Stressing out about taking a class for your job is pointless. Chances are, they won't fire you if you don't do good. And chances are, it's not going to be nearly as hard as you think it might be. Translation: I got all worked up over taking ACLS last week because I'd heard from several people that you need to study a ton for it and it's really hard. And it wasn't super easy. But it went fine anyway! Always does :)

Lesson #3: "Working life" is just as busy as "college life" is. For some reason, I thought we would have all this free time on our hands to enjoy now that we don't have class, tests, and homework to worry about. Well, I'm not sure where all the time is going, but it's going somewhere! I guess life never slows down...you just have to take advantage of the time you have right now.

Lesson #4: Publix is awesome. Unlike at Wal-Mart or Target, you never have to wait in line more than a minute or so. Last week at Wal-Mart, I waited 20 minutes to check out....literally. Publix is clean, the associates are helpful and nice, and they have an awesome coupon policy that lets me save money! Every time I go to Wal-Mart or Target, it makes me love Publix even more!

Lesson #5: Perspective. It's all about the way you look at things. If you automatically view everything and everyone in a negative light, it can really bring you down. But, if you look for the good in people, chances are you'll have a better day.

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes." ~William James

Hope you all are having a GREAT day!